Morning wood, or as it’s formally known, nocturnal penile tumescence (NPT), is a common occurrence for many boys and men. From time to time, men may wake up with an erect penis. This is most common in younger men, although men of all ages may experience NPT.
Many people assume a morning erection is a sign of sexual stimulation, however this isn’t always the case. Morning wood is likely the response your body has to one of several natural occurrences.
The cause of NPT is likely multifactorial. Doctors have a few theories that help explain why men wake up with an erect penis from time to time, but none of these theories are supported by concrete, medical evidence. These theories include:
Physical stimulation
Though your eyes are shut, your body is still very much aware of what’s happening around you. If you or your partner accidentally touch or graze your genitals, you may become erect. Your body senses the stimulation and responds with an erection.
Hormone shifts
Your testosterone level is at its highest in the morning after you wake up. It is highest immediately after waking up from rapid eye movement (REM) sleep stage. The increase in this hormone alone may be enough to cause an erection, even in the absence of any physical stimulation. As men get older, usually between ages 40 and 50, natural testosterone levels begin to fall. As this level decreases, episodes of NPT may decrease as well.
Brain relaxation
During your waking hours, your body releases hormones to suppress erections. When you’re asleep, your body releases less of those hormones. Combine this fact with the other reasons you may experience an erection in your sleep, and NPT becomes more likely.
What’s clearer is what doesn’t cause morning wood. For example, needing to urinate isn’t responsible for morning wood. Some people believe a morning erection keeps them from urinating during their sleep, but this is not true. Morning wood also isn’t always a sign of sexual stimulation. In many cases, NPT isn’t caused by dreams or thoughts of a sexual nature.
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Does No Morning Erection Mean Erectile Dysfunction?
Waking with an erection is common among men, but does a lack of morning wood—slang for the early morning erections (or penile tumescence)—suggest erectile dysfunction? You may wonder what the causes could be or worry that it's due to testosterone deficiency or is a sign of impotence. Discover some facts and science about morning erections.
Causes of Morning Wood
Morning wood is a normal part of male life and can be noted throughout the male lifespan. Infants can be seen to have erections at times. Pre-adolescent boys are less likely to note an erection upon awakening. These erections generally occur with increasing size, rigidity, and frequency later in puberty, and they are a common occurrence in adult life.
Erections occur during the sleep stage called rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. Sleep is often a balance between two parts of the autonomic nervous system, divided into the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems. It seems that during the REM phase of sleep, the body’s systems are tested, including the function of the erectile tissue within the penis. The parasympathetic nerves trigger the tissues to become engorged with blood and then firm. As the last REM period often occurs right upon awakening, men will frequently wake with an erection. What if this does not occur?
Causes of No Morning Erection
There are a few reasons that an adult man may not wake up with a morning erection. Men may not wake with an erection if they're not coming out of REM sleep at that time. Wakefulness is often preceded by lighter stages of sleep when erections do not occur. It's also possible to have REM without having an erection.
A lack of morning erections may also be a sign of erectile dysfunction (ED) or impotence. If a man is experiencing erectile dysfunction at other times, whether or not he has a spontaneous morning erection is a clue his health care provider can use in the diagnosis of what is causing the problem.
Morning Erections & Erectile Dysfunction
Erectile dysfunction or impotence means a many may not be capable of having an erection or that his erection is not firm enough to be able to achieve penetration.
Erectile dysfunction may be related to a physiological or psychological process, and a lack of an erection upon awakening may help to differentiate between these causes.
Physiological causes of impotence relate to an underlying inability to fill the penis with blood to make it erect. This often has a vascular cause, meaning that it relates to dysfunction of the blood vessels. It may occur as a side effect of medications, most commonly antidepressants. Additionally, it may be more common in testosterone deficiency. Thus, men with a physiological cause of impotence will not have morning wood.
Alternatively, some men are not able to become erect due to a psychological difficulty. A lack of sexual arousal or responsiveness may lead to impotence. This can also occur because of anxiety. Men with a psychological cause for erectile dysfunction will still have morning erections since they are physically capable of having them.
A lack of morning wood may not necessarily represent a problem, however, as it doesn't occur daily in all men for the reasons described above.
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Women have erections too! These erections are called clitoral erection. Clitoral erections are usually accompanied with vaginal lubrification.
Just like men (see here), the absence of norepinephrine during the REM phase of the sleep causes erections. In women, this phenomenon is called Nocturnal clitoral tumescence while it is called Nocturnal penile tumescence in men. In women, not only the clitoris get engorged with blood but the vagina too.
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As many things do this in this patriarchal world in which we live, the vulva-owning among us are left confused and bewildered. Women totally have sex dreams. Plenty of them. All the time. This morning wood, mostly-men-only club is over. It's canceled.
Women can wake up, post-sleep-orgasm, wet and ready for morning sex and another orgasm. Morning wood is totally a thing for women. I'd suggest a more inclusive name change, but morning wood is so cheeky and appealing, in my humble opinion.
Science agrees
A study found that 37 percent of women have experienced an orgasm during sleep, while over 70 percent have experienced a highly sexual and arousing dream at some point in their lives. Obviously, am I right?
According to a study from the Kinsey Institute, where researchers measured and observed female genitals while people slept, they found blood flow increases to the clitoris in the same manner that it flows to the penis during REM sleep, our deepest form of sleep. This happens because during sleep, norepinephrine decreases, which contributes to many things in the body, including blood pressure and your fight or flight response. When you're in REM sleep, blood flow isn't as regulated and you're more relaxed.
